Image-Guided Mesenchymal Stem Cell Sodium Iodide Symporter (NIS) Radionuclide Therapy for Glioblastoma.

Simple Summary: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common glioma, which belongs to the aggressive and malignant type of brain tumor. Conventional treatments such as surgical resection, adjuvant radiotherapy, and concomitant and adjuvant temozolomide chemotherapy have only limited effects. Due to the poor prognosis of patients with GBM, there is an urgent need to research effective new adjuvant treatments. The non-invasive imaging-based detection of glioma stem cells presents an alternate means to monitor the tumor and diagnose and evaluate recurrence. Radionuclide therapy seems promising in the treatment of solid malignant tumors. As for the currently increasing number of studies on NIS radionuclide therapy in vivo and in vitro, we aimed to focus on the therapy in GBM using the effective and feasible image-guided strategy to guide radiotherapy to develop a new clinical therapeutic strategy with societal impact. Background: Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly aggressive, invasive, and growth factor-independent grade IV glioma. Survival following the diagnosis is generally poor, with a median survival of approximately 15 months, and it is considered the most aggressive and lethal central nervous system tumor. Conventional treatments based on surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy only delay progression, and death is inevitable. Malignant glioma cells are resistant to traditional therapies, potentially due to a subpopulation of glioma stem cells that are invasive and capable of rapid regrowth. Methods: This is a literature review. The systematic retrieval of information was performed on PubMed, Embase, and Google Scholar. Specified keywords were used in PubMed and the articles retrieved were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and were associated with brain GBM cancer and the sodium iodide symporter (NIS). Additionally, the words 'radionuclide therapy OR mesenchyma, OR radioiodine OR iodine-131 OR molecular imaging OR gene therapy OR translational imaging OR targeted OR theranostic OR symporter OR virus OR solid tumor OR combined therapy OR pituitary OR plasmid AND glioblastoma OR GBM OR GB OR glioma' were also used in the appropriate literature databases of PubMed and Google Scholar. A total of 68,244 articles were found in this search on Mesenchymal Stem Cell Sodium Iodide Symporter and GBM. These articles were found till 2024. To study recent advances, a filter was added to include articles only from 2014 to 2024, duplicates were removed, and articles not related to the title were excluded. These came out to be 78 articles. From these, nine were not retrieved and only seven were selected after the removal of keyword mismatched articles. Appropriate studies were isolated, and important information from each of them was understood and entered into a database from which the information was used in this article. Results: As a result of their natural capacity to identify malignancies, MSCs are employed as tumor therapy vehicles. Because MSCs may be transplanted using several methods, they have been proposed as the ideal vehicles for NIS gene transfer. MSCs have been used as a delivery vector for anticancer drugs in many tumor models due to their capacity to move precisely to malignancies. Also, by directly injecting radiolabeled MSCs into malignant tumors, a therapeutic dosage of beta radiation may be deposited, with the added benefit that the tumor would only localize and not spread to the surrounding healthy tissues. Conclusion: The non-invasive imaging-based detection of glioma stem cells presents an alternate means to monitor the tumor and diagnose and evaluate recurrence. The sodium iodide symporter gene is a specific gene in a variety of human thyroid diseases that functions to move iodine into the cell. In recent years, an increasing number of studies related to the sodium iodide symporter gene have been reported in a variety of tumors and as therapeutic vectors for imaging and therapy. Gene therapy and nuclear medicine therapy for GBM provide a new direction. In all the preclinical studies reviewed, image-guided cell therapy led to greater survival benefits and, therefore, has the potential to be translated into techniques in glioblastoma treatment trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]